Because I can't trust my instincts
by internallyscreamingdaily
Summary: Michelangelo discovers that there is a new villain in town who is out to mind control the citizens of New York City, but he finds that he might have to deal with him alone.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own rights to TMNT**

Michelangelo flipped his skateboard under him, the wheels making a rumbling noise against the concrete of the rooftop. He enjoyed every second of the cool breeze hitting his face, along with the music blaring through his headphones.

As he looked ahead, he realized that the gap where a street came between two buildings was much to wide for him to jump. He dragged his foot on the roof, trying to slow himself down, but quickly jerked it back onto the board. He was moving much too fast to stop himself that way; the concrete stung his foot.

Michelangelo was nearing the end of the rooftop. He put his foot on the front of the board and shifted his weight onto it. It launched him forward. He rolled onto the roof and dragged himself to a stop by digging his fingertips into the rooftop. Pushing himself up, he saw that the skateboard was still moving, headed for the edge.

"No!" he cried before remembering that he wasn't supposed to be making sprinted for the board. It tipped over the edge of the roof and started to fall, but it was stopped by Mikey's hand. He grabbed it by the wheel and pulled it up, saving the oblivious passerby below from a terrible headache.

He allowed himself a sigh of relief.

 _Man, would it have been hard to explain to Leo why that dude had been hit by a random skateboard,_ he thought, _and who knows how that poor guy's day went?_

His eyes widened in the realization that all the people that he saw on this street right now had lives as complex, and perhaps as crazy, as his own.

 _Blowing our own mind again, are we?_

He waited for an opening where no one was looking before grappling across the street to resume skating.

A few minutes later, he skidded to a halt. He felt something was off. He looked to the street beside him.

There were no cars, no pedestrians, and no bikes to be seen. The shops were all closed, and no lights were visible from the apartment. The street was completely desolate.

 _In the city that never sleeps? That's not right..._

He looked up the road. At a corner, the street suddenly turned from dark and desolate to bustling, bright, and full of life; the usual air of New York City.

 _Well, that's odd._

Mikey skated to the corner to look down the intersecting street. On one side, it was dark and void of life, but on the other, there was the usual bustle.

 _What?_

He skated down the intersecting road. Again, the emptiness ended at another street corner. Michelangelo followed the emptiness until he was back where he had noticed it. There was an entire square where the lack of commotion rang out, and the odd thing was, he was the only one who seemed to notice.

The square went on for a while. Mikey didn't have Donnie's sense of measurement, but he knew that the area must have been between one and two miles.

 _A race?_ He thought. _No, the streets would be marked off, and people would be watching. Then what is going on?_

There was only one way to find out. He decided to go into the square.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as Mikey entered the square, he got the chilling feeling that he shouldn't be there. With every step he took, it got stronger and stronger.

 _What is wrong with me?_

He pushed himself to take another step, knowing that it was the only way to find out.

He had to be near the center of it now. After a few steps, the feeling grew weaker, so he went back to the strongest point.

 _This building I'm on must be where it's coming from._

Mikey stealthily slipped through the window into what must have been an abandoned warehouse. Dusty crates were everywhere, lengthy cobwebs stretching from most of them.

He walked between crates, eyeing every inch of the place, when he stumbled and miraculously stopped himself from falling. He leaned against a crate for support, shaking his head, trying to clear some dizziness. The ominous feeling was so strong now that it was actually making him feel sick.

Footsteps echoed throughought the warehouse. He ducked behind a crate before the figure passed him. After the figure had walked a distance away, Mikey followed him, keeping to the shadows.

The figure led him to an open area in the warehouse, illuminated by a single dim yellow light bulb, which was hanging low, almost loose from its wire. It emerged into the light, and for the first time, Mikey could see his face.

He was an older teenager, tall and slender. His mousy brunet hair greatly contrasted with the countless freckles on his cheeks and the grey jacket he wore.

"It worked," he reported, his voice light, yet chilling. "No one's around for at least a mile. It's driven them all away."

"Excellent," said a voice from the shadows, cold and deep. "Well done, Thomas." The owner of the voice walks into the light, patting a jumble of wire, metal, and switches. "If the machine can...convince them to do that, it should also be able to reason with them to take out those I loathe."

Michelangelo's eyes widened. _They're going to kill someone?_

He suddenly fell, tipping the crate over that he had been hiding behind. He struggled to get up; the sense that the machine was causing making him feel terribly ill.

"What was that?" he heard Thomas's voice ask.

He forced himself up, his head pounding.

"Over there!"

He ran for it, stumbling over himself in the weakness the machine had given him. He made it back up to the window by the time they had gotten to the unsettled crate and slipped back out, hoping that they had not seen him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you kidding? Captain Ryan is a _great_ leader!"

"He'll never beat the leader of the _Fantastic Four Food Groups,_ " argued Raph. He looked over when he heard Michelangelo walk past the turnstiles, then went back to his geek war with Leo. "The one and only-" but he cut himself off when he registered what he had seen.

"Mikey?" he said, his voice suddenly flooding with concern. "What happened to you? You look terrible!"

Donnie looked up from the news and Leo from Raph to see that their little brother was, indeed, very pale and gently shaking.

"Are you okay?" Donnie asked.

"You aren't going to believe this."

"You're right," said Raph when Mikey had finished. "I don't believe it."

"I don't know, Raph," Leo said. "It seems a lot more realistic than alien brains in robot bodies, and we all know how that went."

Raph crossed his arms, giving Leo an annoyed, skeptical glare.

"His story checks in," Donnie added, putting his T-phone away. "I've called every buisness in that area, no one's picking up."

"It's worth a look," Leo said as Raph gave a disapproving growl. "And besides, you haven't had much to beat up in a week," he added in a singsong voice, trying to appeal to him.

"Well, _that_ much is true," Raph agreed.

Just a few lights were on in the square when they arrived, and people had started to filter back in.

 _Have they already started on their next project?_ Mikey thought. _Of course they have, shellbrain,_ he scolded himself. _Why would they wait around when their test was successful? Especially since we might try to stop them because they know someone knows about it now._

Leo stopped ahead of them. "I don't feel anything unusual."

"They've probably already started," he thought aloud. "Moved from the test to the project."

He pointed to the building that he had seen them in, and they slunk in through the window, one by one.

Mikey went to where he had seen them, but he was surprised by what he saw.

The crate that he had knocked over was upright, the light that had been working shattered, and the machine was gone.

"What? It-it was just here!" he claimed, gesturing to the open area.

He looked up to meet Leo's and Raph's disapproving gazes. They both turned and started to walk away.

"But it-it was just here!" he repeated as they disappeared from view.

He turned to Donnie, noticing that he hadn't said anything.

"If what you're saying isn't true, then that gives me no explanation as to why the shops were all closed," he said. "I'm willing to help you poke around for a while longer."

"So, do you know how we're going to find them?" Mikey asked as they walked across the roof.

Donatello pulled the mutagen tracker from underneath his belt.

"After Mr. O'Neil was mind-controlled, I tried to modify this to be able to find any more control devices, but it didn't work well because the devices weren't giving anything off in a radiating pulse that I could zone in on, so there wasn't much I could have it scan for."

"What?" Mikey said.

"It should be able to track the machine you told us about because since he's trying to mind-control more than one person, I should be able to follow the frequencies in the atmosphere that can directly alter human brainwave patterns," Donnie explained.

"Again-what?"

"I can uusee thiiis tooo traack the maachiiine," Donnie said annoyedly, pronouncing the words unnessiscarily slow.

"Oh. Then track away."

After a minute of tampering with the controls, Donnie pointed to the left of him before starting in that direction.

"The tracker's going crazy," Donnie said. "We must be close."

"But D," Mikey said, unable to keep the worry out of his voice, "How are we going to keep ourselves from being controlled?"

"You said you were the only one who noticed the empty square?"

Mikey nodded.

"Maybe we aren't as vunerable since we're mutants," Donnie said. "It was probably designed specifically to alter human brainwave patterns. Besides, you said it only got stronger when you got closer to the centre. When it gets strong, we'll have to remind ourselves what we're here to do."

They walked towards the centre with Donnie leading the way.

Mikey's senses seemed sharper. He was alert, jumping at every small noise other than their footsteps.

 _"They are a threat to you."_

It took him a second to register it. The voice in his head was so subtle that he barely noticed it. It was quiet, almost a whisper, but yet the voice was calming, soothing, as if it belonged to a close friend who posed no danger to you and held no secrets. He stopped to listen again.

 _"You can't listen to them. They are not your friends. You cannot trust them."_

 _Who?_ he asked the voice.

And he suddenly knew.

 _No. They_ _ **are**_ _my friends,_ he thought, although part of him wanted to listen to the voice.

 _"They are a threat,"_ the voice said.

 _No._

 _"Wouldn't it be easier without any threats?"_

 _I can trust them._

 _"Kill them."_

 _No!_ he told the voice, but yet another part of him said, _would it be so bad?_

 _Don't listen to it._

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

"It's you. Why have you come back?"

It took Mikey a second to realize that the voice that had just spoken was not the one in his head or even his own; it was Donnie's.

Shocked, he looked up to see that his older brother was glaring at him, the expression in his eyes not natural to him.

"I'll stop you," he growled in a cutting, hard voice. "You won't get past me."


	4. Chapter 4

"Donnie, what's wrong with you?" Mikey gasped.

His older brother's reddish eyes seemed cold and hard, unlike the usual kindness they had usually showed him. They seemed to glow threateningly, like angry embers that would scorch anything they touched.

"You should have known better than to come back here," he snapped, his bo staff out in front of him, the blade extended.

"Donnie, please," Michelangelo breathed.

Donatello leapt at him, the blade aimed at Michelangelo's throat. Mikey jumped out of the way, and Donnie landed gracefully where he had just been.

"Snap out of it, bro!"

He dodged a jab of the staff with a backflip, but stumbled on his landing, which gave time for Don to run up to him and knock him down. He picked Mikey up and thrusted him against the graffitied concrete of a building. Dazed, he slumped to the ground. He shook his head, looked up, and gasped, his eyes growing wide.

Donatello towered over him, his arms raised above his head, holding the end of his bo. The other tip was pointed at Mikey's heart, the blade extended.

"Donnie!" Mikey gasped.

Donnie raised his arms higher, ready to bring the blade down and kill his younger brother, when the cold stare in his eyes faltered. They started to flicker like sparks out of a raw wire until the kindness and warmth in his eyes defeated the cold, hard glare.

"Mikey?" he breathed.

In realization of what had happened, he jumped, throwing his weapon to the ground with a clatter.

"Mikey! I'm sorry! I-"

"It's alright, dude. It wasn't you. But we have to go now. I know who they're after."


	5. Chapter 5

They didn't have to travel far to reach their destination. The man and Thomas must have set their machine up near their target so that the ones that they were controlling could get there fast.

Donnie stepped into the view of a security camera and waved so that they didn't surprise anyone inside.

The two jumped up to the window ledge, and after opening it, made their way inside.

The Mighty Mutanimals had been waiting for them there after they saw Donnie.

"Thank goodness you're here," Rockwell said. "We have a problem."

* * *

They peered out the window of the top story. There were two people across the street, gazing blankly at opposite ends of the building.

"There's been someone there for a while. Different people, though, like they have been rotating shifts. They just stare at the building, but don't do much else. I think they know we're in here," explained Slash.

"We know why," said Donnie, but he was promptly interrupted when an arrow flew through the window, narrowly missing his nose.

Mikey yelped as the arrow hit the far wall with a THWACK and vibrated ominously on the spot.

"I think they're doing something else now," he whimpered.

"Go, go, go!" Donnie yelled, tackling Mikey out of the danger of the window as more arrows came through, showering the floor with shards of glass.

They all pressed themselves flat against the stone wall as the space in front of them was slowly decorated with the colorful feathers of arrows.

"Ah! This is the end! We're all going to diiieeee- ow!" Mondo Gecko cried.

"Calm down, Jason," Rockwell hissed. "We just need another way out."

BANG! With a cloud of smoke and dust, the large iron double doors were blown off their hinges. A crowd stood in the hallway, their eyes cold and hard.

"Uh- I think that might be a problem," Mikey said with a nervous laugh.

* * *

THWACK. THWACK. THWACK.

The dummy swung limply as Raphael dealt it another blow.

Leo looked thoughtfully up from his rerun of _Space Heroes._

"Do you think that there might have been any chance that Mikey was telling the truth?" he asked.

Raph panted for a few seconds, catching his breath before responding. "Nah."

* * *

In a panicked attempt to keep the mind-controlled crowd out, Leatherhead and Slash pushed the doors against the open wall, but the doors had been twisted and dented by the explosion so that a few arrows and writhing hands still made their way through.

"We need to get out of here without harming them!" Rockwell screeched.

"Mikey, ready?" Donnie asked.

Michelangelo nodded determinedly.

"One... two..." Donnie counted. "Three!"

The two threw smoke bombs everywhere, covering the room in magenta dust. Through the thick, swirling clouds, the sound of Leatherhead and Slash dropping the mangled iron doors could be heard.

It took a few seconds for the smoke to clear, then the crowd charged in, only to realize that there was nothing there.

"I think I know where the machine is," Donnie said. "This way."

"Donnie, you were already controlled once," Mikey argued. "What if it happens again? What if it happens to all of us?"

"I know it's risky," Donatello said gloomily, "But chances are, at least one of us will make it to the machine without falling under his control."

* * *

Donnie stayed at the centre of the group as they wandered, hidden by the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Slash and Leatherhead were at the front, Jason and Rockwell were on either side of Donnie, and Mikey followed close behind, looking for figures in the shadows, his imagination running wild.

" _They... are the threat..."_

 _No, no they're not,_ Mikey thought, although part of him wanted to listen to the voice.

"So what did you do to tick him off, anyway?" he demanded, his tone surprising even himself. They looked back at him, shocked.

"I- I'm sorry," he gasped. "I guess this voice is just getting to me."

"Voice?" Rockwell asked. "What voi-" he cut himself off in the middle of his sentence.

Mikey heard it too. Footsteps were approaching fast.

"BONZAI!" cried a voice from above them.

Mikey looked up to see Thomas in the air, his tawny eyes blazing with intent. He held a long, slim sword over his head. It was lighter, thinner, and longer than any sword Mikey had ever seen. It must have been for fencing, or some other form that used tactics instead of force.

Leatherhead dodged the sword before it hit him. Thomas came for another swing, but Rockwell used his powers to throw him against a wall.

He scrambled to his feet and bolted for another alley.

"After him!" Slash shouted, following Thomas with the other Mutanimals close behind

him.

Mikey ran for the alley, too, when a large dumpster came crashing towards him. He ducked out of the way, and it blocked the entrance to the alley.

"AAUUUGGHH!"

He let out a piercing yell and dropped to his knees, gasping and groaning, clutching his shoulder.

"I...told you...I...warned you...I...will stop you."

Mikey weakly looked up to see Donnie standing in front of him, the blade of his bo staff glistening with blood.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ugh." Mikey groaned weakly on the ground, his hand on his shoulder, feeling the hot, sticky blood ooze out of it.

"I warned you," Donnie growled bitterly. "You're just as bad as the other mutants."

"Donnie, please! Fight it! This isn't you!"

Donatello lunged for him, his staff poised for another strike. Mikey just managed to evade the blade, rolling inches away from where it landed before scrambling to his feet. While he had the chance, he reached into his belt to grab his last smoke bomb.

Donnie was charging Michelangelo, his bo held in front of him. Mikey threw the bomb at Donnie. It broke on the wooden edge of his weapon, clouding him in the same magenta dust.

Donatello growled, angrily swinging the staff in front of him, only to realize that Michelangelo had already left the spot. He watched safely from the roof of a nearby building as his brother saw that he was gone.

"Don't worry, Donnie," he whispered as he watched him down below, furiously searching. "I'll set this straight."

* * *

He went on, following the voice in his head, knowing that he was getting closer to the machine when it got stronger.

The biting pain in his shoulder seemed to be distracting him from actually listening to much that the voice actually said, and knowing why it had been hurt helped him to remember why he was there and what he had to do.

At last he found the building. The voice no longer seemed subtle. His senses heightened with apprehension. He could once again hear the words the voice was saying.

 _"I am your friend. You can trust me. I am no threat."_

 _Wait, why has it changed?_ Mikey thought, looking around as he entered through a broken window, jumping onto the flat top of a large hanging light. He looked down and let out a gasp as he saw the answer.

Donnie, Slash, Leatherhead, Rockwell, and Jason were all lined up neatly in front of Thomas and the man that he had seen earlier, all of their eyes hardened into a cold stare.


	7. Chapter 7

"No, Mikey breathed, staring down at his mind-controlled friends.

His attention turned to a _thump._

Thomas had jumped onto the flat edge of the hanging light behind him. In one swift motion, he drew his sword and sliced one of the two cables holding up the light that Mikey was on.

The light immediately tipped and swung limply by one cable, giving Michelangelo no time to react. He fell a great distance before crashing onto the hard floor.

"Why do you persist?" asked the same cold, deep voice. "Your friends have already succumbed to the great power of the machine."

Mikey weakly lifted his head, trying to see the features of the man who was proudly patting the machine, but he couldn't. His vision was fogging and unfogging and turning black at the edges.

"Well, if you don't know when to give up..."

Mikey was immediately surrounded by Donnie and the mutanimals.

He forced himself to his feet, now seeing two of everything that was before him.

"Attack him!"

Somehow, he miraculously managed to get Donatello's bo staff from him and reluctantly hit him onto his back.

 _But you're not supposed to be attacking them,_ he thought.

He clumsily fumbled for a shiruken, knowing that he didn't have much of a chance. He aimed it between Rockwell and Slash at the machine, then waited a moment for his double vision to combine before throwing it with a flick of his wrist.

Feeling sick, he closed his eyes. _Thwack._ The shiruken cut the wires.

"No!" the cold, deep voice yelled.

Donnie stopped in the middle of an attempt to strike Mikey. They stopped, one by one, before looking confusedly around them. Donnie rushed forward, seeming to be the first one to put two and two together.

"You did it!" He beamed his gap-toothed grin at Mikey.

Michelangelo gave a weak smile, leaning unsteadily on Donnie's staff. The world seemed to be spinning around him, one way, then another.

The staff made a hollow clatter as it bounced on the ground, and Mikey collapsed beside it.

The last things he saw were Donnie's shocked, concerned eyes before everything faded into black.


	8. Chapter 8

Growling was filling the otherwise silent area. No, it was too soft and consistent. Curious, Mikey blinked his eyes open. It was not growling at all, but the hum of the Shellraiser's engine. A tiny shift of his head, and he could see that Donnie was in the front seat, driving.

Mikey gingerly lifted his head with a grimace. He had been put in his usual seat.

The brakes started to squeal as they gradually slowed and came to a halt. Donnie rose out of his seat and rushed back when he saw that his little brother was awake.

"How do you feel?"

"Better than I did," he replied, noticing that he had a splitting headache, but at least his vision had returned to normal. "What happened?" he asked as Donnie helped him up, supporting him.

"Well, after the machine was destroyed, it wasn't hard to chase away the culprits. Rockwell dismantled every last wire."

"Good to hear," Mikey said as they went through the turnstiles.

"There they are!" Raph called.

"Guys, where have you been?" Leo asked.

Donnie groaned and face-palmed with his free hand.


End file.
